Journal Article

Expanding conservation culturomics and iEcology from terrestrial to aquatic realms

China, Victor, Jarić, Ivan, Jähnig, Sonja C., Belmaker, Jonathan, Lennox, Robert J., Roll, Uri, Chen, Yan, Wolter, Christian, Kalinkat, Gregor, Correia, Ricardo A., Sbragaglia, Valerio, Souza, Allan T., Jeschke, Jonathan M., Kalous, Lukáš, Šmejkal, Marek, Soriano-Redondo, Andrea, Ladle, Richard, Sherren, Kate, Arlinghaus, Robert, Douda, Karel, Rosa, Rui, Essl, Franz

2020

Overview

The ongoing digital revolution in the age of big data is opening new research opportunities. Culturomics and iEcology, two emerging research areas based on the analysis of online data resources, can provide novel scientific insights and inform conservation and management efforts. To date, culturomics and iEcology have been applied primarily in the terrestrial realm. Here, we advocate for expanding such applications to the aquatic realm by providing a brief overview of these new approaches and outlining key areas in which culturomics and iEcology are likely to have the highest impact, including the management of protected areas; fisheries; flagship species identification; detection and distribution of threatened, rare, and alien species; assessment of ecosystem status and anthropogenic impacts; and social impact assessment. When deployed in the right context with awareness of potential biases, culturomics and iEcology are ripe for rapid development as low-cost research approaches based on data available from digital sources, with increasingly diverse applications for aquatic ecosystems.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Animals / Animals, Wild - physiology / Anthropogenic factors / Aquatic ecosystems / Bias / Biodiversity / Biology / Biology and Life Sciences / Computer and Information Sciences / Conservation / Conservation of Natural Resources / Contemporary problems / Earth Sciences / Ecology and Environmental Sciences / Ecosystem / Ecosystem assessment / Ecosystem biology / Endangered & extinct species / Endangered Species / Environmental economics / Environmental studies / Fisheries / Fisheries management / Freshwater ecology / Geographical distribution / Health sciences / Human influences / Information sources / Introduced species / Life sciences / Protected areas / Protected species / R&D / Rare species / Research & development / Resource conservation / Resource management / Social impact / Technology application / Terrestrial environments / Threatened species / User generated content / Zoology